Na’Vi COO States, “Dota is the worst game in terms of economics.”

COO of Na’Vi, Aleksey "xaoc" Kucherov, in an interview with cyber.sports.ru has put forward his views regarding the current status of the Dota 2 ecosystem. xaoc has highlighted the role of Valve in the upliftment of the Dota 2 scene, Dota 2’s future and Na’Vi’s current profitability from their investment into the Dota 2 professional circuit. 

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Na'Vi COO Raises Some Strong Points

xaoc handles and overlooks a lot of domains in Na’Vi, pertaining to both CS:GO and Dota 2. While the major part of the interview was concerned with general esports and CS:GO focussed discussions, Na’Vi’s COO was also asked about some questions regarding Dota 2. 

Na’Vi’s CEO Yevhen “HarisPilton” Zolotarov had earlier stated about the sad scene of Dota 2. When asked about xaoc’s opinion, he said,

“First of all, you need to turn on Valve itself. Reformat the current system a bit, because it is at the root of the current problems with both the players and the business in the clubs. 

Now Dota is the worst game in terms of economics, the worst of all with which we work or have worked. This should not be the case, because the game is mega-popular in the CIS and Europe. I would like the developers to reconsider their views and contact the clubs, tournament organizers and think about how to make the ecosystem better. This is the main point from which the rest of the points follow.”

^{Translation via Deepl}

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When asked about the potential effectiveness of introducing in-game items for teams in Dota, xaoc replied,

“This is what we are talking about. Dota needs something like this for the economy to function better. It is also worth changing the tournament format with the same prize money so that everything is more stable, and the players are not guided only by the International, and then come what may. This makes it impossible for the club, the players, or anyone to plan long term. In order for the system to develop, plans and attraction of investments, investment of resources is needed. You cannot do this, because you do not know what will happen after TI. If in-game items appear, the same team merch in Dota itself will be very cool. This will be the first step towards improving the Dota ecosystem.”

^{Translation via Deepl}

xaoc was asked about when the esports club will start earning broadcast rights to which he responded by taking Dota 2’s example,

“Let's take Dota. If everything continues the same as it is now, then, most likely, in a year or two not a single club will contain a Dota roster, because this is a wildly negative story. For example, in America, already now, the number of organization with Dota lineups can be counted on one hand.”

^{Translation via Deepl}

At the end, xaoc was asked about the profitability of Na’Vi in the current pandemic phase to which he responded,

“The economy of NAVI is really ahead of many other clubs. But Club activity is now unprofitable in many disciplines. If we abandoned Dota, it would remove a lot of costs that do not pay off in any way, but we need to take into account our origins, audience, and we simply cannot do this at the moment and “give” the discipline one more chance.”

^{Translation via Deepl}

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Another strong figure in CIS Dota 2, xaoc,  has expressed his views regarding the current state of affairs of Dota 2. Almost all of them have stated that the game is dying and it needs some urgent and significant improvements for survival. Many other Dota 2 players and personalities have called out Valve for the holistic development of the Dota 2 professional scene.